When Elyn MacInnis first moved to Nanjing in the late 1980s, she was greeted by a wholly unexpected connection.

Local elderly residents would look at the American newcomer, pause and tell her she resembled Minnie Vautrin: a middle-aged woman with round glasses and centre-parted hair often pinned up.

MacInnis, who goes by the Chinese name Mu Yanling, knew the name only vaguely then.

Vautrin was an American missionary who led Jinling Women’s College during the Nanking massacre, in the city now called Nanjing. Vautrin sheltered and saved thousands of Chinese women and children when Japanese troops captured the eastern Chinese city.

For six weeks from December 13, 1937, Japanese troops stormed the city, killing, raping and looting. Historians’ estimates of the fatalities vary widely, ranging from the tens of thousands to as high as 300,000. Saturday marks the 88th anniversary of the Nanking massacre.

Elyn MacInnis stands before a statue of Minnie Vautrin, who was an American missionary during the Nanking massacre of 1937. Photo: Handout

Later, standing before Vautrin’s formidable bronze statue at the memorial hall dedicated to the victims of the Nanking massacre in Nanjing, MacInnis felt profoundly humbled.